A.I. Hacked: A Practical Guide to the Future with Artificial Intelligence

By Elzar Simon

Some say artificial intelligence will lead to our doom. Others say it will help solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

Elzar Simon, a veteran IT strategist and visionary, explains what it is—and what it is not—in this guide to living in a world where the future is now.

Focusing on the role A.I. plays in health care, medical research, food production, transportation, security, cybercrime, and more, he examines its pitfalls and upside. He highlights how:

• Companies like Amazon, Google, and Tesla are investing in A.I.—and what it means.
• People will have to cope with A.I. affecting their lives sooner than they think .
• Stakeholders disagree on whether we should pursue or abandon A.I.

The author clearly lays out why the feelings surrounding A.I. are so intense, the potential dangers, as well as the likely rewards. More importantly, he provides a blueprint for how humanity should navigate this journey so the positive effects of A.I. research and development outweigh any cause for concern.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jun 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781480878365

Elzar Simon

Elzar Simon has more than thirty years of experience as an information technology manager at the global and regional level. He has lived in Australia, North America, and Asia and has worked as a senior IT leader and strategist in a broad range of industries, including finance, logistics, health care, government, IT services, and higher education. He currently works as a senior IT director for one of the largest and most prestigious universities in the Northeast of the United States.

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Copyright © 2019 Elzar Simon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7835-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7834-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7836-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019907257

Archway Publishing rev. date:10/24/2019

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 ANALOG TO DIGITAL LIFE

Chapter 2 THE BIRTH OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Chapter 3 VALUE PROPOSITION

Generating Profit

Business Growth

Chapter 4 HOMEWARD BOUND

Chapter 5 THE THINGS THAT MAKE US HUMAN

Chapter 6 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Chapter 7 THE ART OF MAKING ART

AI in Music

AI in Fine Arts and Literature

Where the Real Value Lies

Chapter 8 NOW THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!

Creating and Marketing Content

The Ultimate Virtual Experience

Chapter 9 MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS

The Matter of Privacy

Equal and Opposite Reaction

Body Chip

Chapter 10 WHAT ABOUT MY JOB?

Chapter 11 TEACH YOUR CHILDREN

Personalized Learning

Refocusing Education

Chapter 12 TALK TO ME

Text-based Communication

Verbal Communication

AI Enhanced Devices and Apps

Chapter 13 YOU GOT A FRIEND IN ME

Chapter 14 REMEMBER MASLOW

Chapter 15 THE SCIENTIFIC WAY

Accelerating Drug Discovery

Smart Medical Devices

AI in Science and Technology

Chapter 16 JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED

Chapter 17 A MIGHTY FORTRESS

Chapter 18 WHAT MAKES THE WORLD GO ’ROUND

Chapter 19 THE NEXT FRONTIER

Notes

This book is dedicated to my lovely wife, Elisa, and to our wonderful children, Joshua, Elisha, and Ysabel.

My special thanks to Leigh Berrell, Allan Jansen, Natalija Jovanovic, and Maurice Winn.

INTRODUCTION

Like a tumultuous torrent of freshwater frenzy rushing through the mighty Amazon River, an insuppressible movement is sweeping throughout the world today.

This silent pervasion suddenly gained media attention in early 2011 at an event that was wrapped with entertainment: IBM Watson¹ beat highly intelligent human beings on Jeopardy, a famous television game show.

Jeopardy² is a game of wit. Those who are familiar with the TV show know that the subjects are broad and unpredictable, the topics vary from the very trivial to common knowledge, the questions are phrased like puzzles, and the answers must be given by contestants in the form of a question. IBM Watson’s victory was like a checkered flag that was raised to signal the start of a historic race.

Since then, the ebullient revolution has forged ahead.

In January 2016, the Telegraph released an article entitled First driverless buses travel public roads in Netherlands.³

In April 2016, MIT Technology Review released an article entitled Will Artificial Intelligence Win the Caption Contest? The same article heralded, Neural networks have mastered the ability to label things in images, and now they’re learning to tell stories from a set of photos.⁴

In October 2016, Forbes (forbes.com) released an article entitled The World’s First Home Robotic Chef Can Cook over 100 Meals.⁵

In January 2017, Quartz (qz.com), a news provider covering the global economy, came out with an article entitled Japanese White-Collar Workers Are Already Being Replaced by Artificial Intelligence.⁶

In June 2017, an article in Bloomberg announced that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is one of the Big Four consulting companies in the world, predicted that the global GDP would be 14% higher in 2030 as a result of Artificial Intelligence.⁷ That’s in 2030—just a few years from now.

In October 2018, Christie’s Auction House (www.christies.com), a world-famous auction house in New York City, sold an AI-generated artwork at a price that was forty times higher than what the sellers expected.⁸

At the ground level, the movement is conspicuous. We now post a picture on Facebook⁹ and the system can recognize us and our friends in it. We can talk to a home device like the Amazon Alexa¹⁰ or Google Home¹¹ and ask it to play us a song, turn off our television set, tell us about the weather, or converse on any topic under the sun—in exactly the same way that we talk to humans. We read about Tesla’s technological breakthrough in manufacturing cars that could drive us to our destination without any human intervention.¹² We order an item on Amazon Prime,¹³ and the shopping site suggests a list of related products that other people bought when they purchased the item we just selected. We visit a bank website and a chatbot¹⁴ pops up to ask us if we have any questions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived and will continue to be a forceful reality that we humans have to reckon with—sooner than we might think.

AI is here and we have a choice: we can either ignore or acknowledge its existence.

To dismiss its existence would be imprudent, like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand.

While intelligent machines would naturally have human cynics and skeptics, AI would unquestionably play a major role in our new world order, whether we like it or not. In fact, AI’s building blocks are now in place: machine perception,¹⁵ facial and voice recognition,¹⁶ deep learning or machine learning,¹⁷ and of course, natural language processing¹⁸ that enables machines to audibly or textually converse with us humans. And let’s not forget sophisticated gaming algorithms, advanced AI planning capabilities, and robotics.¹⁹

Regardless of ethics, we humans would endeavor to create anything that could be made and explore anything that could be discovered. That is just part of our DNA²⁰ as a human race. And that is the key factor as to why we humans have made significant progress in many fields over the past thousands of years. And we would assuredly continue to do so.

While artificial intelligence is perceived by many as the ultimate enemy of humankind, many envision that AI would help solve humanity’s biggest challenges: health care, medical research, food production, transportation, security and cybercrime, and many more. As AI algorithms become more sophisticated, this unstoppable force will continue to advance across humankind’s dominion. There is no stopping this revolution.

It is therefore imperative that we vigilantly watch its development, judiciously examine its impact, and actively participate in factual and pragmatic deliberations.

What is AI really capable of doing?

Would these intelligent machines simply complement the human workforce or replace us?

Are they friends, or are they foes?

Should AI development be stopped or pursued?

The idea of machines having their own minds is not without issues. It raises a number questions including identity, ownership, intellectual property, copyright, royalties, entitlements and awards, insurance, and even financial liabilities. Take the case of an unmanned truck that causes an accident or a robot security guard that mistakenly lets a thief into an art museum.

There is no doubt that the application of AI would come in many shapes and forms. While